Twenty-one whooping crane chicks have arrived at Necedah National Wildlife
Refuge in central Wisconsin for conditioning in preparation for their
fall migration behind ultralight aircraft.

The chicks were flown to Necedah
in three “cohorts” by private
airplane from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center in Laurel, Md., where they hatched, imprinted on and learned to
follow ultralight aircraft on the ground. Following a quick vet check
that showed that all of the birds were healthy, they were taken to their
new home on the refuge, which is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.

The 13 males and eight females
of the “Class of 2005” comprise
the fifth flock of juvenile cranes to take part in a project sponsored
by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, a coalition of public and
private groups that is reintroducing endangered whooping cranes in eastern
North America, part of their historic range.

A field team from Operation
Migration, Inc., and the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center will spend
the summer strengthening the social cohesion of the flock and teaching
them to fly behind the ultralights. Biologists from the International
Crane Foundation will join the field team later this summer. This fall,
the team will guide the young cranes on their first southward migration,
leading them by ultralight to Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge
on Florida’s Gulf coast, the cranes’ winter
home.

In addition to the chicks that will migrate behind ultralights, WCEP
biologists are also rearing five additional cranes that will be released
this fall into the company of older birds at Necedah in the hopes that
the chicks will learn the migration route from adult whoopers.

WCEP is using this “direct autumn release” technique
to complement the known success of the ultralight-led migrations. Chicks
for direct autumn release will be reared in the field and then released
with older birds after fledging, or developing their flight feathers.
This method of reintroduction has been extensively tested and proven
previously successful with sandhill cranes.

There are currently 42 whooping cranes in the wild as a result of the
first four years of reintroductions into the eastern flock. Project biologists
continue to monitor the veteran cranes from the Classes of 2001 through
2004, most of which have returned from Florida on their own. Many of
these cranes are spending the summer on public and private lands in the
central Wisconsin area.

WCEP biologists recently retrieved and brought to Wisconsin two whooping
cranes from the Class of 2003 that had spent all of last summer and a
portion of this summer in western Michigan. Another crane, number 9-03,
last seen in Vermont, has not been spotted in the past two weeks.

The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership thanks Windway Capital Corporation
for donating its plane and pilot to transport the crane chicks from Patuxent.

WCEP asks anyone who encounters a whooping crane in the wild to please
give them the respect and distance they need. Do not approach birds on
foot within 1,000 feet; try to remain in your vehicle; do not approach
in a vehicle within 1,000 feet or, if on a public road, within 500 feet.
Also, please remain concealed and do not speak loudly enough that the
birds can hear you. Finally, do not trespass on private property in an
attempt to view whooping cranes.

The whooping crane chicks that take part in the reintroduction project
are hatched at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. There, the young
cranes are introduced to ultralight aircraft and raised in isolation
from humans. To ensure the impressionable cranes remain wild, project
biologists and pilots adhere to a strict no-talking rule, broadcast recorded
crane calls and wear costumes designed to mask the human form whenever
they are around the cranes.

New classes of cranes are transported to Necedah NWR each June and begin
a summer of conditioning behind the ultralights to prepare them for their
fall migration. Pilots lead the birds on gradually longer training flights
at the refuge throughout the summer until the young cranes are deemed
ready to follow the aircraft along the migration route.

Most of the “graduated classes” of
whoopers spend much of their time during the summer in central Wisconsin.
They also use state and private lands. It is not unusual for yearling
cranes to wander, especially if they are not associating with any male
flockmates, who typically select the future breeding territory.

Project staff from the International Crane Foundation and the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service track and monitor the reintroduced cranes in an
effort to learn as much as possible about their unassisted journeys and
the habitat choices they make along the way. These biologists, along
with others from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, continue
to monitor the cranes while they are in their summer locations.

Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today,
there are only about 275 birds in the wild. Aside from the 42 Wisconsin-Florida
birds, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests at
the Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada
and winters at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf
Coast. A non-migrating flock of approximately 100 birds lives year-round
in the central Florida Kissimmee region.

Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
founding members include the International Crane Foundation, Operation
Migration Inc., Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey’s
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and National Wildlife Health Center,
the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Natural Resources Foundation
of Wisconsin, and the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team.

Many other flyway states,
provinces, private individuals and conservation groups have joined
forces with and support WCEP by donating resources, funding and personnel.
More than 60 percent of the project’s estimated
$1.8 million budget comes from private sources in the form of grants,
public donations and corporate sponsors.